The list is released annually by the influential business magazine Forbes. Winfrey has held the top post five times in the past decade.

The magazine says Knowles pulls $US2.4 million ($2.54 million) for every stop on her world concert tour, has a raft of endorsements which bring her annual earnings to $US115 million and, with her latest album, delivered a platinum-selling hit with no marketing or publicity by simply launching it on iTunes.

New top earner: Beyonce, with husband Jay-Z. Photo: AP

Forbes ranks its annual list - known as the "Celebrity 100" - by measuring stars in the fields of film, TV, sport, music, publishing and modelling and measuring their wealth and fame.

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Prominence in the mainstream media and on social media is also factored in. The time frame for the list is June 1, 2013, to June 1, 2014.

The data is then compiled into an algorithm. Earnings carry the most weight, the magazine says.

In a powerful reflection of a bad year in PR terms, singer Justin Bieber slipped to 33rd position on the list. In the past three years he was ranked in third, third and ninth place, respectively.

Forbes said Bieber remained a strong presence on social media but had slipped in his ranking because of a "low impact" in other spheres.

Other celebrities who have previously ranked in the top 10, such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, also slipped to lower rankings.

Lady Gaga slipped to 19th and Woods to 21st place. Extraordinarily, Madonna, Jolie, Cruise and Roberts no longer feature on the list.

Roberts was the number one ranked celebrity in 2000, Cruise in 2001 and 2006, and Jolie in 2009.

The music technology guru Dr Dre - who just sold his Beats business to Apple in an extraordinary $US3 billion deal - made more in the last year than anyone in the history of the Celebrity 100, Forbes said.

His personal slice of the deal is worth a reported $US620 million.

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, who produced the billion-dollar film franchise based on the best-selling book The Lord of the Rings, came in at 48th place on the list.

The highest-ranked Australian on the list was actor Hugh Jackman, who came in at 63rd place.

Despite securing the cover of Vogue magazine and a wedding which generated enormous noise on social media, American reality TV star Kim Kardashian was ranked in 80th place.

There were 20 newcomers on the list this year, including the Swedish DJ Avicii, actors Bradley Cooper and Bryan Cranston, tennis star Novak Djokovic, writer/producer/actress Lena Dunham and talk show host Jimmy Fallon.

The oldest person on the list was British musician Sir Paul McCartney, at 72 years old.

A total of 22 people on the list of 100 were aged 50 or over.

Other than singers Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, who are both aged 20, no one on the list was aged 22 or younger.

Only 33 of the list of 100 were women, but women made up three of the top five, and five of the top 10 and nine of the top 20.